Blog for Carson Tang

What to Consider in Creating Success For Your Business?

I just returned from a whirlwind tour of mainland China from Bejing, Guilin, Xian, Yanshou, Hangshou to Shanghai. I saw what China wants you to see as their successful industrial revolution marches on at breakneck speed; and I also peered into the heart of the dragon and visited where the core of its citizens reside.

Is your business service or product just a flash in the pan or is it serving both your bottomline and the greater good — customers, staff, and brand? With the hunger for dominion and a thirst for godlike powers the rush to build an unconquerable empire with a single focus seems to narrow and extreme yet focus and clarity have always been the underpinning for personal and corporate success. Here is where we miss the point as those who understand the synergy of many collaborate and deliver exponential results for the singularity of the whole.

In possession of what now appears a spoiled western lifestyle I entered the makeshift hamlets of real life for 80% of the true populus of China to discover what humbles any who enter while tugging at their sense and sensibility. For a nation steeped in deeply ingrained culture, painted in majestic beauty, woven with unmatched artistic masterpieces, and grounded on a 6,000 year old history you would not expect the smog, lack of sanitary control and modern housing, and censorship controls in place.

If you were handed a Sim City video game to build your own empire would you build it in a way that would avoid these issues? It is a difficult answer since in all fairness to the Chinese government when you deal with controlling the growth of a nation with 1,330,044,544 residents (2008 — that is 1/5 of the entire world’s population — 20.8%!) it is a bit difficult to get the 800 pound gorilla under control if you want to spring board into the future. Yet there are corners cut where the rich get richer, and the foundation of what built this super power was its people — many of those living in what we consider poverty or even subsistant conditions.

Now that we have a reference point for massive change in a short time, lets see what we can do with your business. Most of what below also falls under part of your marketing strategy. The sections below are just a few suggestions and not exhaustive. There are plenty more and as you read what is below new ideas will come to you. This will kick start your strategic and business thinking cap.

Vision
Get clear on where you are headed and map the course

Strategic Growth

1. Know your outcome before it happens. Don’t be a victim of molding your company in knee jerk reaction to how it must conform to how fear shapes it. Use a deliberate path based on feedback from the market, test your hypothesis, and apply it often.. don’t stay a course that keeps your company stuck on a path back to a never changing dilapidated old home.

2. Plan to utilize and involve your staff, vendors and customers. Reward them well for their efforts if they achieve milestones for you or help you hit your targets. 3. Prepare to shift on the fly as new roads need to be built or discovered as more or difference commerce heads your way. If you are seeing declines, don’t worry just keep at it and never show them your sweat
3. People are more comfortable doing business with winners not whiners or losers. So keep the best foot forward and make sure your people reflect that and are not hidden behind a false facade or wall of smoke from your prospects. Your staff, even support, can be your biggest advocates.

Tactical Action
1. Make sure your company engages your prospects regularly whether weekly, monthly or quarterly.
2. Make your business transparent in a way to allow it to be the guiding light for being a leader. No one likes a company they understand little of and know even less about from what they can observe. This only works only if the whole of all the components are a positive reflection of what you define in your brand, service and product in cleanliness, dependability, happy staff, and team support working on immediate transformation and change where needed.

Keeping Up The Momentum
1. Once your numbers begin humming along don’t overlook infrastructure and improving customer satisfaction and retention since you spend less and make more from returning customers than with new potential prospects.

2. Share the wealth and joy. Do you have a profit sharing or bonus incentive built around how well your company does against last year’s numbers? In this economy staff and partners happily work harder when they can see your wins translated to them in financial terms.
3. Broadcast the good news and recognize outstanding achievements and work. People need to know how they are doing and where they stand. Let them know and it gives them a foundation to build off of.

Action
1. Nothing ever gets accomplished unless you apply some energy to move it along. Think about it.. objects in motion remain in motion although those that are immobile remain stuck until a force puts it into motion and inertia takes over. Once you get the ball rolling keep it rolling. Much easier keeping your marketing, tactics, etc. steaming along than to restart it from a dead stop like a locomotive. What this means is plan ahead but take action now on what you have planned in advance for what you can do now.

2. Mobilize others including vendors, affiliates, support, etc to fire up the engines getting publicity, word of mouth, good will, and sales on a steady course to you.
3. Plan for tomorrow, but work and play for today! Live in the moment.. it doesn’t mean take unpredictable or unplanned action but to take what you have planned and tested (or know may work with a degree of some certainty) and apply it immediately in a deliberate timed and strategic manner. Know and anticipate the outcome before it occurs so you roll right into the next phase of your campaign or initiative.

Review, Assess and Reapply
1. If all works do more.. increase your marketing dollars in those areas, increase your activity in a particular event, spend more in relevant ad buys. If the strategy you applied does not work or has lack luster results alter it slightly and test it. Did you know when a ad is not creating the results you seek the solution is not in replacing a well crafted ad or re-writing the content it may be just the caption! As you inch towards the goal line the wins come easily.. as the wins become bigger you will note most of it is due to a well prepared, rewarded, and happy workforce and a conducive environment for productivity and enhancing loyalty.

Taking steps to manage, deploy and evolve your business in a holistic fashion is a complex path. What is above may not be so black and white, although the significance of the doctrine of the intent and focus is universal. Want to build an empire? Even a small kingdom with your business? Take everything into account and don’t take what effects your bottomline for granted by way of ignoring employee/vendor/customer satisfaction and subjecting it to immediate material gain. The end is not always a quick cash fix if you plan for the long term bigger results. Going broke is not suggested although deliberate and thought out productive debt is sometimes not a bad thing.

By the way these days lines of credit and loans are hard to come by.. whatever happened to all that government bail out money? I guess if you are not making billions of dollars and have to pay your employees millions of dollars on salaries and bonuses you are on your own. It doesn’t have to be that way. Even with Uncle Sam turning its back on small business you can connect with a peer group that include other business owners or executives in a similar space and leverage your collective buying and negotiating power.

The most successful business people don’t go it alone they hook up with others who will help them get to where they are headed. This is a dog eat dog world and when you run in a pack the hunt and your survival is more successful. You would think the Chinese who are the 80% would stand up together.. although those tanks and rifles are a daunting challenge to stand up for your rights.. aren’t you thankful you are not a local resident of China’s struggling and forgotten 80%?

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